Having struggled in our last
three matches to get anything like our recent form going, a match
against the original "dogs of war" at Goodison Park is not the most
welcoming game to try and produce our best football.

It will be a dogged battle with
a packed midfield and lots of closing down by the home side, but in
the return fixture at the Lane, they were a pale shadow of their
usual battling selves and Spurs ran out comfortable winners, albeit
only 2-0.

In defence captain Phil
Jagielka will be looking to break the partnership of Johnny Heitinga
and Sylvain Distin that has kept Everton on a run of six unbeaten
matches. Heitinga man marked Rafael van der Vaart last season,
but suffered this season, as Spurs attacked from different positions
across the pitch, with Distin looking slow against the likes of Bale
and Lennon. But with Leighton Baines on the left and Tony
Hibbert on the right, the full backs have an attacking instinct, but
can stick to their defensive duties if required. Hibbert might
find himself in for a chasing if Bale sticks to the left and with
Lennon missing on the other flank, he might need to, otherwise, BAE
could end up exposed on that flank.

Tim Howard has not had a
lucky season, with the own goal by Phil Neville at Wigan spinning
viciously past him like an off break. However, his keeping has
been erratic this season, with some goals he has let in ones which
he would have kept out in the past. A good shot-stopper, it is
his decision making which is now his Achilles heel.

The midfield is where Moyes
always likes to get the most out of his players. Usually
plumping for bug, strong players there, he has the choice of Royston
Drenthe, Marouane Fellaini, Tim Cahill, Seamus Coleman, Ross Barkley
and Phil Neville. Fellaini and Neville are the hard men
and they will try to upset the Tottenham midfield by getting their
foot in on them. Barkley has been used sparingly this season
after breaking through last campaign, Tim Cahill has lacked his
usual number of games and subsequently, his usual number of goals
and the only shining light for Toffees fans has been Royston Drenthe.
On loan from Real Madrid, when he plays, Everton seem to have more
impetus going forward and he is always willing to try a shot from
long range. Another option who Moyes is now often relying on
is Leon Osman, who also happens to be the club's top scorer with
three goals this season, along with Anichebe, Drenthe, Leighton
baines and Apostolos Vellios.

And thereby hangs a tale.
The midfield have been chipping in with the goals, but they have not
been coming from the front men. Anichebe is often injured and
Landon Donovan has returned Stateside, leaving the inexperienced
Jose Baxter and Vellios as other striking options. More likely
to feature could be January signing Nikica Jelavic from Rangers, who
has only made a couple of sub appearances or Dennis Stracqulursi,
the Argentinian who has scored one goal in 13 appearances of late,
but James McFadden is an experienced Premier League striker who
Moyes could also turn to.

For Spurs, Harry has to decide
which inform strikers he wants to start with. Defoe's two in
midweek came against Stevenage, while Saha has got three in two
games against Newcastle and Arsenal, before drawing a blank against
Manchester United, when Defoe came on to score too. A nice situation
for the manager to pick two from three and to have Rafael van der
Vaart and Gareth Bale fit too to add to the attacking options.
No doubt Benny will come back in and Sandro might feature with the
ball likely to be stuck in midfield for the majority of the time.
Being without our loaned midfielder Steven Pienaar might hit them
hard, as he has sparked the little revival since he returned to
Goodison.

Last time out, Everton drew 1-1
with QPR at Loftus Road and there have been wins over Chelsea and
Man City, but draws with Wigan Athletic, Aston Villa and Blackburn
Rovers too.

It won't be a pretty game and
Spurs will do well to find the time and space to play anything like
they were a few weeks back, so I will go for a scoring draw,
but it will have to be a low one, as the Toffees don't net too many
goals these days and Spurs are finding it hard to break down teams
who set out to defend. Having rolled over quite easily at
White hart Lane, I think Everton might fancy having a bit of a go at
home.

EVERTON TEAM
NEWS :
Darron Gibson (knee) is out of the Spurs match and Victor Anichebe
(groin) and Jack Rodwell (hamstring) are both doubts for the Everton
manager.

TOTTENHAM
HOTSPUR TEAM NEWS :
Spurs will be without the two players injured on Wednesday in the FA
Cup replay v Stevenage - Michael Dawson, who is out for the
majority, if not all, the rest of the season and Aaron Lennon, who
it is hoped might be back within a matter of a couple of weeks.
Long term injured Tom Huddlestone (ankle) is still out, but William
Gallas might have a place on the bench with Spurs hit by injuries in
defence. Adam Smith might find a place there too, along with
Danny Rose, should Harry need cover at the back.
Louis Saha might be fit, although there appears to be some
discrepancy between Redknapp's and Moyes' interpretation about
whether he will play or not.

A third straight league defeat
for Spurs under Harry Redknapp for the first time ahs raised some
concern about what exactly has gone wrong in recent weeks as Spurs
mis-fire and look off the pace in games, as they did for much of
this 0-1 defeat by Everton at Goodison Park.

Tottenham looked half-paced
and lacking shape as they struggled against an Everton side, who
were lacking in attacking intent and if this is an example of how
David Moyes' teams play their football, then I suggest that Daniel
Levy look elsewhere for a manager to replace Harry Redknapp when he
goes. Great big players hurtling into challenges and time
wasting from the early part of the first half is not what I want to
see at White Hart Lane. It is all very well people saying that
he has done well on almost no budget, but leopards don't change
their spots. Look at Sam Allardyce at West Ham. Fans
there are apoplectic with rage at the football played despite them
being second in the table.

There is no doubt that he
makes the best of what he ahs got and at the moment, Harry is not
doing the same, with the players letting him down when they cross
the white line. But the manager has to take some of the blame.
Why pay Bale on the right in a position that has never worked for
Tottenham ? It might work for Wales, but not for us. it
restricts his effectiveness unless he cuts in and hits a left foot
shot, but when pushed wide, he has to check back or try and cross
with the outside of this left foot, which he can do, but not as
accurately. It makes it a little easier for defenders to keep
him out of the game.

The game was a poor one to
watch, with too many misplaced passes or ones to players who were
under pressure as soon as they got the ball. The movement did
not allow an out ball often enough, with Adebayor having a day to
forget after his recent good form. Jermain Defoe looked
lively, but too often he takes a shot when it might not be the best
option and that is frustrating for team-mates and fans. But
mostly, the team did not look up for the battle you know you are
going to get at Everton and probably went the same way as Man City
and Chelsea before them.

The firs quarter of an hour
was weird. At times, the game might as well have been behind
closed doors, with both sets of fans having a bit of a sing, but
with periods when there was no noise at all. For all the
noises that are made about the Everton fans being knowledgeable,
they showed themselves to be anything but, with their constant
claiming of any decision that they thought should have been theirs
and the booing for players who had done nothing wrong.
Unfortunately, Mark Halsey, usually one of the better referees got
caught up in this and nothing went our way in his eyes, with only
Kyle Walker's petulant kick at Stracqualursi, after the Argentine
striker had taken him after the ball had gone, going unpunished, but
if some action had been taken by the ref it might not have happened
anyway.

There were a couple of
shouts for penalties and on another day they might have been given,
but not today. One in the first half saw Defoe go down taking
a shot that went well wide as the cynical Heitinga "challenged", but
the Dutch defender knows what he is doing most of the time and made
contact in putting Jermain off his shot. In the second half,
when Spurs had decided to up the pace, a little ball into the box by
substitute Jake Livermore bounced off Leighton Baines' thigh and
onto his arm, which, John Terry-like, he held tight to his side, but
moving it towards the ball in the process. You have seen them
awarded.

But Spurs only really
stepped up the tempo in the last five minutes, after dominating a
second half that saw them fail to score despite having lots of
openings. The reason for that was being unlucky on a couple of
occasions, but more often, it was not creating enough space to open
up the two banks of four (well, one of which ended up a five) in
front of the Everton goal.

Maybe the quiet amongst the
crowd arose from not much on the pitch giving them reason to cheer.
Bale took a loose pass and drove forward, but his cross was blocked
for a corner, which, as always, we did not threaten from and
Everton's sole early threat was a Coleman shot, after a neat
exchange of passes on the edge of the box, but it went a couple of
feet wide with Brad Friedel having it covered. Coleman's next
effort saw Scott Parker throw himself in front of the ball and take
the sting out of the effort, leaving it to balloon up into Friedel's
hands. Defoe's penalty claim came next, with Halsey not
interested and then a 20th minute Everton free-kick from the right
was won in the air by Jelavic and it fell to Fellaini at the far
post and he shot low, but Brad spread himself well and his leg was
in the way to send the ball away from goal.

A couple of minutes later,
Spurs allowed Everton to go ahead with some sloppy defending (again).
A move down the left saw a ball passed to Leon Osman five yards
outside the area and towards the left corner of the box. With
one, not particularly deceptive, move, he had moved past Younes
Kaboul, who guessed wrong and allowed the midfielder to sail past
him. Then the Everton man pulled the ball back behind him into
the box from his wide position and it came to Nikica Jelavic in
acres of space in our box and although he was stretching, he had a
lot of goal to aim at. While Brad got a hand to the ball, he
could not keep it out and it went in to give the home side the lead.

Tottenham's response was a
30 yard shot from Bale that went past Howard's left hand post that
was comfortable for the keeper and then the Welshman hit a free-kick
from the same range two feet wide, but again, Howard looked like he
had it covered. Sandro won the ball and put Luka Modric
through, but the Croatian's shot was weak and straight at the
keeper. When Everton were awarded a free-kick five yards
outside the box, at least Jelavic got his shot on target, forcing
Friedel to beat it away at his left hand post. Our free-kicks
and corners must be the poorest in the Premier League, as we rarely
make anything of them, with the same people taking them the whole
time. If that is going to be the case, they need to get out on
the training ground and practice until they get them right, as the
lack of conversion rate is costing us.

One that did nearly work was
curled in from the left wing by Bale to the far post and Heitinga
got underneath it, allowing it to travel to Sandro beyond the far
post and his shot that might have gone across the face of goal was
blocked for a corner. So, at half time it seemed unlikely that
Spurs would be able to get back into the game unless changes were
lade, as it just wasn't working.

And when the players came
out after the interval, there were no new faces on show. So, I
held out little hope for the final outcome, but the side did start
pushing forward more ... or was it that Everton were dropping deeper
? There is always an element of protecting what they have and
that is another reason why I don't think Moyes would be a good
choice for Spurs as a manager.

From the kick off Tottenham did look brighter and a through ball by
Parker to Defoe gave the striker a shot on goal that Howard got
right behind. Five minutes later, the same combination saw
Defoe out on the right and he cut in to smash a wild shot too high,
frustrating those who had made space in the box on the other side of
the area. Then, once more, the Parker-Defoe move put our forward in
on goal, but Howard again thwarted the England striker.

Adebayor only played nine
minutes of the second half, with Harry bringing on Louis Saha up
front against his old side and he got a good hand as he entered the
fray. A Spurs corner found Sandro at the far post, but he
wasn't up high enough to direct it on goal and then, when Bale
spread play to Assou-Ekotto, the full back's cross dropped for
Modric, who skied his shot.

The game was getting scrappy
and while Spurs were starting to scrap with Everton, it brought a
couple of bookings, with Benoit fouling Drenthe as he ran through
and Defoe brought down Heitinga off the ball as their feud that has
lasted a couple of seasons, continued. A free kick on the edge
of the D at the Everton end resulted in Kaboul hitting the ball
hard, as he always does, but with no accuracy, as he always does.
Defoe again tested Howard with the aid of a deflection, but the
keeper kept it out and Spurs were dominant, camped in the Everton
half.

It took until the 70th
minute until Everton worried Friedel and then it was a move
that was against the run of play. Coleman broke away and
released Osman in the box on the right hand side, but his shot was
at Friedel, who had closed him down and the ball bounced out and was
cleared.

With a quarter of an hour to
go, Spurs had the ball in the net, but Defoe had been standing
offside before he beat Howard. Assou-Ekotto's cross was
chested up in the air by Bale and it went forward to Defoe, who shot
home on the volley, but it was clear there was only Howard between
him and goal.

Then, as the game entered
added time, Spurs suddenly started to push forward with pace and
push Everton even further back. A shot from just outside the
box from van der Vaart hit a defender on the way and with Howard
stranded having already committed himself, he was glad to see the
ball drift over the bar. From the corner on our right wing,
mayhem ensued as Friedel joined the outfield player sin the area.
With all eyes on our keeper, the ball was pulled back to Benoit on
the edge of the area, but he shanked his shot and the ball went
through to Saha on the edge of the six yard box. He had to
react quickly, but got a shot away and the ball came back off the
inside of the post, hit Howard's knee and went away from goal.

The last meaningful act of
the game saw Halsey book Howard for time-wasting a minute from the
end of the match. What is the point of that ?? It is
unlikely to speed the game up with so little time left. Why
don't refs book players early for time wasting, thus giving the
booking some meaning rather than it being a token gesture to hark
back to the remainder of the game ??

With the final whistle, the
home crowd erupted. Another cup final we have had to face then
!!

But the result was a fair
one, as we were so slow in the first half and I can't believe it was
the Stevenage game that has taken so much out of them. The
performance was not sustained enough and the selection of Bale on
the right played into Everton's hands. Spurs could not get
dangerous balls into the box often enough for our forwards to
threaten in the early stages of the match.

It is no good dominating
games if we do not score and our defending allows sides to score,
which is something that didn't happen earlier in the season.
Losing Lennon has unbalanced the side, as has been said before, but
Spurs should be able to cope with that and have enough chances to
win games, but at the moment, for whatever reason, are notable to
make them into goals.

With our run in, we need to
be scoring goals and quickly. Maybe this will be a test for
Harry that the FA might be watching as closely as all Spurs fans.

Watching the game on
TV, I formed the opinion that I did not want David Moyes to be the
new Spurs manager.

Apart from the
tactics he employed and the way his team go about the game, the
shots provided by ESPN showed members of the crowd being provided
with blankets and young fans with cards to keep them entertained
while the play was in progress. No wonder there is no budget
for new players at Goodion !!

Other scores
during this week :

Aston Villa

1

Fulham

0

Saturday

Bolton Wanderers

2

Queens Park Rangers

1

Saturday

Chelsea

1

Stoke City

0

Saturday

Sunderland

1

Liverpool

0

Saturday

Wolverhampton
Wanderers

0

Blackburn Rovers

2

Saturday

Norwich City

1

Wigan Athletic

1

Sunday

Manchester United

2

West Bromwich Albion

0

Sunday

Swansea City

0

Manchester City

1

Sunday

Arsenal

-

-

-

-day

Newcastle United

-

-

-

-day

League Table

P

W

D

L

F

A

Pts

GD

1

Manchester United

28

21

4

3

68

27

67

+41

2

Manchester City

28

20

3

4

69

20

66

+49

3

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

28

16

5

7

52

34

53

+18

4

Arsenal

27

15

4

8

55

38

49

+17

5

Chelsea

28

14

7

7

48

33

49

+15

6

Newcastle United

27

12

8

7

39

39

44

0

7

Liverpool

27

10

9

8

30

26

39

+4

8

Sunderland

28

10

7

11

36

31

37

+5

9

Everton

27

10

7

10

28

28

37

0

10

Fulham

28

9

9

10

37

37

36

0

11

Swansea City

28

9

9

10

33

36

36

-3

12

Norwich City

28

9

9

10

39

45

36

-6

13

Stoke City

28

10

6

12

27

39

36

-12

14

West Bromwich Albion

28

10

5

14

34

36

35

-3

15

Aston Villa

28

7

12

9

31

35

33

-4

16

Blackburn Rovers

28

6

7

15

40

60

25

-20

17

Bolton Wanderers

28

7

2

19

31

57

23

-26

18

Queens Park Rangers

28

5

7

16

29

48

22

-19

19

Wolverhampton Wanderers

28

5

7

15

30

58

22

-28

20

Wigan Athletic

28

4

9

15

24

53

21

-29

Position before match :
3rd
Position after match : 3rd
Position after the weekend : 3rd